International Interdisciplinary Conference on MINERAL WATERS: Genesis, Exploitation, Protection and Valorisation http://minwat2014.vuv.cz/The conference will be held 8-11 September 2014 in Karlovy Vary (Carlsbad) in Czech Republic. Abstract submission deadline is February 1, 2014, submission webpage to be active from about mid November 2013.

The principle organizers of MinWat2014 are:

International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH), IAH Commission on Mineral and Thermal Waters

Last May, AQUASYN consortiummadeits second “Transnational meeting” in Barcelona. A series of activities were developed.One example of these is the visit to the Dr. Oliver-RodésLaboratorywhere the director, Mr. Benet Oliver-Rodés, welcomed all the members of the consortium. Also, he shared his experiences and the importance of this company, which has been leaded for generations by his family and himself.

Then we did a little tour on the history of Pharmacy. We went to the Royal Academy of Pharmacy of Catalonia where Dr. MiquelYlla-Català gave us a short talk on the history of this relevant Institution.

During the afternoon, the “Stakeholders event” took place.There the audience could know the goals; reach of the AQUASYN project and different approaches to the world of bottled water.

In the second and final day, the consortium partners had an internal meeting where the Secretaryof the European Federation of Bottled Waters (EFBW)and the specialists in bottled water of the Dr. Oliver- Rodés Laboratory in Spain were invited. The meeting discussed future plans of AQUASYN project, which will involve the consortium and the other participants.

The organizers are grateful for the company and kindness of every one of the visitors with whom we expect to complete with success this starting project.

Our visit at Oliver Rodes laboratory was one of the meeting’s highlights in Barcelona. We were really impressed by the long history of the lab and the devotion of the people to live up to the high standards, Oliver Rodes lab has set over the years. We would like to express our thankfulness towards the staff, for their hospitality and their detailed presentation on the laboratory’s operation. We were thoroughly informed for the analytical methods and all analyses performed in the water with state of the art equipment. I believe we were all amazed by the museum’s vast selection of bottled water from allover the world. It was really interesting to observe the evolution of bottled water over the last two centuries. Special thanks to Dr. Antoni Borrell Azlor for his presentation on bottled water tasting in regard to the mineral content of the water. We wish to laboratory staff and the company to continue their great job and hope to collaborate with them in the near future.